I had Logitech Squeezeboxes for years but got rid of them a while back while we built the house intending to find something new.

I’ve been using iTunes running on my desktop Mac as a ‘whole house’ audio system and it’s been working pretty well. There’s a line-out from the Mac to an amp in the ‘study’. An Apple TV in the Living Room and another in the kitchen. Any music that’s in iTunes can be streamed to one or more of those. I use Apple Remote from my phone or iPad to select the music so it doesn’t get interrupted if I use my phone for something else or drop wifi.

Now looking to use Apple Music or Spotify rather than downloaded music but running into a few snafus –

Apple Music – can’t choose it using remote unless I add stuff to my library (requires switching on Apple Cloud Storage for my music which I’ve heard horror stories about losing remixes/live tracks/etc). If don’t use remote music is playing via phone and interrupted when take a call/use web and can only play to one device at a time.

Spotify – does work as a remote really well *but* doesn’t allow playback to more than one device (so it can play in the study or the kitchen but not both at the same time).

Sonos would obviously allow multiroom (and different music in each room) but I’d want/need 4 Sonos Connects at £250 each. Am I missing sometime or are there any other alternatives?

I’d want/need 4 Sonos Connects at £250 each. Am I missing something

Yeah, you don’t need to spend £250 per Sonos. The Sonos 1 is perfect unless you’ve got massive rooms. I’ve got the 3 in my fairly big living room, my missus has the 1 in her equally sized living room. Zero difference.

Sonos 1 is currently £130 most places

I’ve got nice amps/speakers and DAB tuners. No desire to replace them with Sonos speakers – I want some way to get my music onto my existing systems

Sounds like you need some kind of wi-fi adaptor for your existing hi-fi…

Something like this:

http://www.pure.com/wireless-speakers/products/jongo-a2/black

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pure-Jongo-Wireless-Adapter-Bluetooth/dp/B00CGYN47O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480885588&sr=8-1&keywords=Pure+jongo+a2

chromecast audio? does the spotify multiroom thing really well but fails at gapless playback. Nevertheless, has weaned me off my itunes dependency and is now how I find and listen to music.

You can setup Spotify Family to play the same music in different rooms apparently…

I use a Gramofon to play Spotify through my amp and speakers. It works a treat and if you have more than one then you get multiroom functionality (again apparently – I only have the one)
gramofon

I’ve got a Sonos 3, a 1 and a connect. If I was buying again I wouldn’t pay they extra for the 3, but a pair of 1’s would be great.

Re the connect, I run the digital coax to the amp in the living room and a fibre optic to the amp in the garage so get two zones for the price of one. Might help in your situation if running cabling is easy for you?

so get two zones for the price of one.

That might be an option. I’ve backed up my iTunes library and subscribed to Apple Music/iCloud music. That seems to give me the ability to remote control itunes (so long as I’ve already added the music to my collection).